Doing
Theologies in Asian Ways with Asian Resources
-
An Introduction to A Theological Movement Launched by PTCA
Keynote
Speak for Global Ecumenical Theological Education (GETI) Program
WCC
Busan Assembly Meeting, Seoul Korea
Oct.
28, 2013
by
Dr. Huang Po Ho
Dean
of PTCA, Moderator of AFTE and Vice President &
Prof. of CJCU
Introduction
The
attempt to formulate theologies and to implement theological education in Asia, can be dated back to the arrival and establishment of
Christians of Oriental Orthodox tradition, and multiplied with successive Christian sojourn to
Asia, of Roman Catholic and Protestant
Christian missions from Europe and North America. Theological education carried out as institutes of professional higher
education has been operated
in many of Asian countries for more than a century. Because of the
Christian mission legacy, theological education systems implemented in
Asia are mostly modeled after theological schools from western countries in all
their structures, disciplines and curricula.
Over
the years, despite of many challenges and arguments for new form of theological
education and many conferences which have been held to urge that transformation
be made for traditional models of theological education, there is still ongoing
search for appropriate theological education to meet the contemporary
ministerial and social challenges voiced by theological
faculties, students and church leaders.
Encouraged
by the internal conditions
of the church mission developments, and the external
challenges caused by the international
power remapping, an identity awareness of being “Asian” Christian was begun to
emerge in Asian Christian communities after Second World War. Theological
educators in Asia came together to form associations for theological schools to
encourage personnel exchanges, resources sharing, and shaping solidarity for
theological development in Asia. Association for Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA) was formed in 1957 and increased its members from 16 in the beginning, to 102 at its apex. Asian Theological Association (ATA) was formed in 1970 and has 128 accredited members and 64
associated members. Both associations are committed to the idea of “train Asian
in Asia”, while ATESEA has stressed on
contextual orientation for theological construction. College of Serampore was established even dated back to 1818 to provide collegiate education to students in the Faculties of
Arts, Science and Commerce through affiliation with the University of Calcutta,
as
well higher theological
education to the ministers of the churches through its Faculty of Theology to
affiliated colleges in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
It
was in the midst of this background, that the Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia (PTCA)
was given birth as a theological movement to the service of contextual
theological formation and theological education in Asia.
Critical
Engagement of Theologies and Cultures
The
Programme for Theology
and Cultures in Asia was first formed as a theological workshop in 1983, which
was a joint program collaborated by Christian Conference of Asia (CCA),
Association for Theological Education in Asia (ATESEA), South East Asia
Graduate School of Theology (SEAGST), Center for Religions and Cultures in Tao Fong Shan and Kansai Seminar
House. Its first workshop was hosted in Tao Fong Shan, Hong Kong. This theological initiative was given a mission
of to do reorientation to the young
faculties in the theological schools in Asia and doctoral candidates of SEAGST
for a contextual awareness of doing theologies and theological education. It
was thus considered a contextual theological
movement in Asia.
Four
years later in July 1987, an inauguration for the Programme for Theology and
Cultures in Asia (PTCA) was formally held in Kansai Seminar House, Kyoto Japan
to open a new era for this theological
movement on doing theologies with Asian resources. This inauguration has not
only marked a milestone for the history of PTCA, but also initiated a new epoch
for doing theologies in Asia. The common themes for the series consultations
that held by PTCA in the following years on “Doing Theologies with Resources in
Asia” has a significance of to steer the theological endeavors in Asia away
from the theological methodology of “contextualization”, which was proposed by
the third mandate of Theological Education Fund (TEF) of WCC.
Theological
development in Asia has gone through different stages after it was introduced
to Asian world, these stages are divided according to the theological methodologies
applied to the theological construction and the essential role of Asia cultures as elements of theologies.
These stages are in my
point of view:
stage of theological indigenization, stage of contextualization and stage of
doing theology with Asian resources. Generally speaking, the trend of indigenization has taken the people’s cultures of Asia
as a tool to interpret the Christian faith and theologies that introduced from
western churches. Kosuke Koyama can be seen as a
representative Asian theologian for this
method, in his book on “Waterbuffalo Theology” he explained that through his
experiences confronted with the farmers and waterbuffaloes in the muddy paddy
field where his church in Northern Thailand was situated, he was reminded the
teaching of Paul about his adaptation and self-transfiguration to adjust the
contexts given (1Cor. 9.22f), therefore he was inspired and convinced with a
decision of to subordinate great theological thoughts like those Thomas Aquinas
and Karl Barth to the intellectual and spiritual needs of the farmers.[1]
Shoki
Coe when served in TEF of WCC commends Koyama on his creative and courageous
theological mind to take Asian realities and experiences into account for the
theological endeavors. However, he also pointed out that the theological
attempt to make use of indigenous cultures as mediums of interpretation for
western theologies has its limitation of being static and past orientation. He
proposed that theological formation should be done with dynamic and future orientation,
through critical engagement with people’s life contexts, providing hope to the victims amidst of
their struggles and sufferings. He thus, advocated theological method of
contextualization, making an implication of “incarnation” he suggested that
theologies done in different contexts need to engage critically Christian texts
with people’s contexts. And as context is changing, contextualization of theology should be a continual process
of contextualizing.
It
was derived from these continual theological joint efforts that Asian
theologies have developed to its critical edge, the traditional divisive
concept of Gospel and Cultures were called into question. An interesting development was also happened in WCC’s theological
formation, an inter assemblies study topic was modified from the “Gospel and
Cultures” which was proposed to be studied after the Vancouver Assembly (1983)
to that of “Gospel in Diverse Cultures” after Canberra Assembly (1991). This
thematic modification implies potent significance of theological
transformation, cultures particularly cultures from the non Christian world are
then no longer considered opposition or independent entities from the Gospel,
but are seen as matrix of it. This revisit of relationship between Gospel and
cultures has been understood in Asian contexts through its axiom and
theological formula of “text” and “context”. CS Song the first dean of PTCA
questioned the methodology of contextualization, he argues, that text can only
be understood in its context, therefore no text can be isolated from its original context, and to be contextualized
into another context. He thus proposed the theme on “Doing Theology with Asian
Resources” for a series of theological
seminar workshop that were held jointly by CCA, ATESEA, SEAGST, Kansai Seminar
House and Tao Fong Shan, for the purpose to
orient and reorient those doctoral students of SEAGST and
young faculties in the region. This series of theological workshop continued
for 5 years and fruitfully equipped hundreds alumni through its annual workshops.
Vital
and Creative Theologies in Asia
When
the PTCA was founded it was clearly announced that there is no intention to
establish a new organization or an institution, rather it was an inception of a
theological movement. CS Song echoed with the founding participants of the
inauguration to describe this inception of PTCA as “a fresh beginning” and call
upon a collective works for a creative theological community in Asia. He
commented on the inauguration consultation after the meeting, said:
This
is a fresh beginning in Christian theology, theology not dictated by western
theology, but by what has been disclosed and yet to be disclosed in the Bible,
by lived and living experiences of people and nations of Asia. the main
question is how to bring about this fundamental theological
reorientation....The key to the question of how, the consultation concluded,
was to be found in the “resources in Asia” - resources related to the lives of
people, resources from cultures, religions, histories, in short, resources that
reveal the struggles and aspirations of peoples and nations of Asia throughout
the centuries. Such resources, abundant and varied, deeply rooted in Asian humanity
hold the key to creative living theology in Asia. To affirm these resources as
integral parts not only of Asians but of Asian Christians is the beginning of
Christian theology in Asia.[2]
Shift the
content of theological recourses to Asian world, advocated by PTCA, can be seen
as a milestone for the doing of Asian theologies. Resource has a key role for
theological construction. Resource not only determinates the character of a
theology, the selection of resource inevitably involves interest of identity
concerns. It is thus, shift of theological resources has its implication of the
shift of the identity and the shift of Christian mission. The communiqué issued by the
participants after the inauguration consultation in Kyoto was started with the following words: “Our
aim…is to strengthen through concentrated joint efforts the formation of living
theology and to facilitate the growth of a creative theological community in
Asia.”[3] In another words, the main
concerns of the shift of theological resources are aimed at “living” theology
and “creative” theological community in Asia. If we do not misunderstand the semantics
of the sentences, the participants of the consultation were saying that
theologies introduced to Asia at the time were “dead” theology, and the
theological community in Asia was a “dispirited” one. Both of which were alien from
the contexts and lives of people in Asia. The attempt to format living
theologies with Asian resources, according to the communiqué, is to be done
through common commitment to solidarity in the causes of peace and justice in
the region,[4] and
thus, bring vitalities and creativities to Asian theologies and their
theological communities.
Theological
vitality and creativity have to do with cultural resources generated from the
context. As the communiqué continue to explain: “The Asian Setting Despite the
diverse and unique features of life in Asian countries, and their rich racial,
linguistic and cultural heritages and historical backgrounds, Christians in
this area have long looked to the
West for leadership and for theological insights, neglecting their own
resources in culture, history, and spiritual expression.”[5] A movement for theological renewal and vitality in
Asian context therefore has its significance of to reconfirm a living God who
has always worked and is still working in Asia today. It is this living God who
provides gifts of resources for discipleship and theological dynamics for
mission. Doing theology in Asia is thus, crucial to act on this awareness and
to be imaginative in cultivating the resources we have, so that there will be
an authentic living theology firmly rooted in the concrete life of all Asian societies
and histories.[6]
Doing Theologies with Asian Resources
Taking local cultures
as resource for theological construction is not new to theologians both western
and third world. John Macquarrie, a
Scottish-born theologian, philosopher and Anglican priest, for instance, listed
culture as one of six formative factors of theology in his book entitled: “Principles
of Christian Theology”, namely, Revelation, Scripture, Tradition, Experience,
Culture and Reason.[7]
James Cone the pioneer of North American Black theologian has adopted
Macquarrie’s 6 formative factors by substitution of Reason with Black history. However,
the radical part of shift that black theology proposed about these formative
factors is not the substitution of one of the 6 factors, but is the intentionally
shift of the order of these 6 factors, in
the original order John Macquarrie has arranged to have Revelation, Scripture
and Tradition as first group of the formative factors, which according to his
understanding are resources for theology providing messages and contents of
theology, while the second group includes experiences, cultures and reason are
considered instruments and mediums to interpret and mediate the messages
generated from the first group. Based upon this framework, James Cone by moving
the group of black experiences, history and cultures to the front position of
its order, emphasis the black perceptions and point of view toward
interpretation and discernment of revelation and scripture messages[8], has
made black theology distinct from that of traditional white theologies in North
America and as well Greek-Roman and scholastic trends of theologies.
Cultural resources thus change their role from simply a tool and medium
for theological expressions to that of criteria and perspectives of
interpretation. In another words, the theological efforts done by North
American Black Theology have echoed Shoki Coe’s principle of Contextualization,
to take North American black experiences and cultures seriously and critically
in a process of struggling to interpret and re-interpret the gospel messages
for the liberation of black people in the oppressive situation of North
America.
It is however, even in this stage of theological contextualization, the
cultures and experiences of particular context are considered objects and not
subject of theology. People and people’s experiences are treated either as
innocent recipients of Gospel, to be judged and corrected, or as ill-treated
object of traditional theologies, fighting to gain right and mastering
different methods of theological interpretations. Theological framework remains
unchanged and lives of people subjected. The PTCA to launch the movement on “Doing
Theologies with Asian Resources” has decisively shifted the paradigm of
Christian theology not only from western rational ways of discernment shaped by
enlightenment[9]
but also from resources of Jewish-Greek and Roman Scenarios that has been endorsed
by Christian tradition. Instead, this new paradigm of Asian theology has taken “Asian
pagan” cultural resources not only as one of the formative factors for
theology, but as essential source for theology to be done in Asia. The
significance of this shift of theological resources declares not only a
theological leap from Israel and Christian to Asia, but is also challenged to confess
a living God who is at work since the beginning and throughout the history of
Asia. No more “pagan” can be ascribed to the essence of any stuff
that created from God.
Doing Theologies in Asian Ways
To advocate the principle of
doing theology with Asian resources is in some degree to implicitly illustrate
the theological conviction of many Asian theologians that “Identity determines
theological resources”. Cultural resources are generated through people’s
struggling with their surrounding world throughout their histories; they are
not only representing peoples’ historical experiences and their identities, but
also disclosing the particular concerns and hopes that people envisioned in the
midst of their struggling. Cultural resource thus, is not to be limited to its
narrow sense of those written materials or exhibited relics,
but has to be understood in a broad sense to include socio-political, economic,
ideological and peoples’ spiritual life, which have expressed in local
literatures, folk tales, stories, songs, religious texts, symbols, images, and people’s
movements etc.
Asian
resources understood from this broad definition, have to do with particular
contexts of people and their life struggling in the midst of their contexts. They
are people’s experiences and wisdoms. Taking these resources as formative
elements for theological construction, we are inevitably confronted with
different ways of thinking and living. Resources determines methods, doing
theology in Asia thus, has to do it in Asian ways.
Generally
speaking, Asian theological endeavors encounter a fundamental challenge from
their twofold identities of being an Asian-Christian or a Christian-Asian. Traditional
theologies accompanied by Christian mission equipped by the conversion strategies
was introduced to Asian world with a theological presupposition of that being a
Christian is to give up or to transform radically their Asian identity in order
to inherit the so call Christian identity, which in fact but a western form of
cultural expression for Christian religion. This presupposition was derived
from the missionary mentality of western superiority, which considering western
theologies as universal valid and that local cultures are pagan and sinful and
is to be destroyed or replaced. The advocacy for doing theologies with Asian Resources
is to deny this assumption of conversion concept, but is instead to enrich and
enhance their original identity.
Based
upon this self understanding of being a hyphenated identity Christian in Asia,
theological methodologies developed in Asia to manage the local resources for their
theological constructions, are spontaneously different from those developed
from western traditions. The tasks
of the mission of PTCA thus, is how to
theologize the so
call non-Christian cultural resources in Asia, and this is indeed become one of the major contributions that PTCA has
offered to the theological world in past thirty years. Three significant
methodologies were proposed from Asian theological colleagues to do theologies
with Asian resources, they are all concentrated on drawing contributions from
Asian cultural resources for a vital and relevant theology to be established in
Asian context:
1. Storytelling method: proposed by C.S. Song who is
advocating story theology. Song has considered that theology is
story of people, which tells the passion and hope of people who struggles to
understand the meaning of life through their
faith in loving redemption of God. He argues that God has done redemptive works in creation through all cultures, even the so-called
"non-Christian" cultures. Asian
Christians are therefore obliged to articulate an Asian theology coming from the
"womb" of Asia. And while Asian way of thinking is more intuitive and story
oriented, which is different from western way of logic and rational, which have
been influenced by the enlightenment. Stories are reflections of people’s
experiences out of their suffering, anguish and hope, therefore they are the
vital sources for theology to grasp the people’s struggling and hope. Song thus
argues that stories and cultures are not something outside people, but they are
people. Theology has to take people, women and men, their live and death, their
agony and joy, despair and hope as its essence and purpose. Stories thus have
been considered the most relevant resources for theological construction.
While taking story as resource for doing theology, C.S Song has also
proposed a storytelling method for theological construction. He contends that
telling stories involve storytellers’ identification and imagination. Story
therefore acts to merge one’s identity. Christian storytelling derived from
their twofold identities, will bring together biblical stories and their
cultural stories to critically weaving each other for a new story to be told
with healing and hope.
2. Cross textual reading method,
introduced by Archie Lee, the second dean of PTCA, who is also a scholar of
Hebrew Scripture. Taking the plural religious contexts in Asia, Archie has
argued that Christian scriptures in Asia cannot be read isolating from texts of
other religious scriptures in the region. He
therefore proposes the method of Cross Textual Reading of the Scriptures.
Making Asian resources as text A, and biblical resources as text B, he suggests
that a cross reading over these two texts for a mutual and critical illumination.
This cross textual hermeneutic is also introduced to solve the problem of conflict
between Asian identities with their new inheritance of Christian identity.
3. Re-confessing method: is a contribution from this
writer. Re-confessing method considers that the nature of theology is no other
than a critical reflection of one’s faith made to respond to a particular
context that church and its believers confronted. Faith reflection to this
writer, is a process of confession that involved critically both cultures and
the Gospel elements. Gospel and culture are not separate entities, but are
mingled together with each other. Epistemological speaking, Gospel can only be
perceived through its cultural forms, their value structure and meaning
orientation. Thus, there is no Gospel without cultures. Speaking from Christian
view of Creation, all creatures are existing under the sovereignty of the
creator God; it is therefore, no culture is exempted from the creative elements
inherited from God’s creation acts, and thus no culture without gospel.
Taking this theological affirmation of “Gospel in the womb of cultures”
into Asian contexts, where their cultures were considered “pagan” and being
excluded from theological formation, which resulted in Christian mission the denial
of Asian identity for Asian people once they are conversed to Christian
religion, this writer argues that Christian mission is not to destroy but to
enrich or enhance one’s identity through their faith in Jesus Christ. As all
identities are shaped by cultures, while the Gospel element within the culture
enacts a transcendent dynamics to free people, the identity struggling of being
a hyphenated person, demands an inner struggling and integration within one’s
inmost depths, in order to shape a new being out of this critical engagement of
the two identities represented for cultural and religious (Gospel) traditions.
Doing theology with native cultures in Asia thus involves identity reshaping
and self-transformation and which I describe it as the process of
re-confession.
Re-confessing method though is target on the same purpose with
storytelling method and cross textual reading hermeneutics to solve the twofold
identity problem facing Asian Christians and also to stress on the subjectivity
of Asian cultures in the making of Christian theologies. It is however,
re-confessing method has its intend to improve both storytelling method and
Cross textual reading hermeneutics their defects. While storytelling method has
proved risked arbitrary due to its lack of hermeneutic control[10], the
cross textual reading method is confined to the reading of scripture texts,
which are mostly past and descriptive.
All these theological endeavors
labored by PTCA colleagues are based on a common concern of the identity issue
that Asian Christian confronted after being evangelized to bear their Christian
identity. A vital theology thus, has to do with the cultural values and the life struggling and hope of people in Asia. Therefore a
theological reflection upon these cultural resources has become essential task
for doing theologies in Asia.
Changing
Context of Asia and Its Challenges to the Doing Theologies with Asian Resources
PTCA’s advocacy for “Doing theologies with Asian
Resources” was an attempt to shift paradigm of theology to root it in Asian
contexts and be characterized by Asian cultures and values. It was nevertheless,
distinctive elements of Asia-ness were easier to be identified 30 year ago when
the movement was launched. The rapid globalization process taken place to the
world in last two three decades has driven the societies of Asia to the
multicultural, pluralistic and interconnected world, Asian Resources are today
inter-contextually and inter-culturally shaped. Besides, the new initiatives
created to share common theological concern[11]and new area of concern
developed such as environmental and ecological justice, the cross boundaries
cooperation and challenges from globalization versus quest for local
authenticity[12], are all important factors to be take into
consideration for the future journey of Asia theologies and theological
education.
As contexts change, their resources are
developing, theological endeavors are unavoidably advanced. We are challenged
and as well blessed to be commissioned a new task to carry the mission of doing
theologies with resources in this complicate world of Asia today, that can
bring people, their struggles and hope to the presence of God, and to reflect
upon the situations that engaged the God-Human in action in the frame of divine integral creation for a
prophetic message to the world. (Thank you)
[1] Kosuke Koyama,
Waterbuffalo Theology (great Britain: SCM Press Ltd, 1974) p. viii
[2] C.S. Song, Fresh Beginning for Christian
Theology, unpublished paper dated July 15, 1987
[7] See
John Macquarrie, Principles of Christian Theology (New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 1966), p. 4
[8] James
H. Cone, A black Theology of Liberation, (Philadelphia & New York:
J.B.Lippincott Company,1970), pp. 54-69
[10] See Huang Po Ho,
Re-confessing Christian Identity Through Telling People’s Stories in Asia: A
Methodological Discussion on Hermeneutical Control, Chapter II, part II of From
Galilee to Tainan – Towards A Theology of Chhut-thau-thiN, by Huang Po Ho
(Manila: ATESEA Occasional Paper no. 15, 2005) pp. 81-94.
[11] The
Conference for Asian Theologians (CATS) formed under the auspices of CCA and
other regional theological education associations,
providing fellowship for theological scholars and forum for theological
exchanges within Asia region and beyond.
The Institute for Advance Studies of Asian Theologies and Cultures (IASACT)
created by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA),
has acted to provide young theological scholars an open forum for exchanges and
orientation. It is however, the CATS is operated more as a platform for
fellowship. And the IASACT of United Board does not particular focus on
orientation for contextual theological methodology.
[12] Traditional
theological education which the Asian world imitated from western churches, in
general, is a product of Enlightenment. It was predominantly perceived as
academic discipline. Therefore, mastering theology as an academic discipline
was considered as sufficient tool for managing the Christian communities and
their affairs. The contextual orientation
has challenged this presupposition, and theological education that is based on
that premise even in the West. It calls for a program of theological education
which equally takes into consideration the experience of human communities from
where the candidates are recruited for training and are sent to serve. The
globalization, a renewed contemporary force which tries to homogenize the human
cultures and traditions has given further boost for the search for contextuality from the perspectives of retaining
and preserving the local identity and priority. The Charismatic and
Neo-evangelical Christian movements inspired from outside Asia as well as those
originated within Asia have induced new forms of faith expressions and
Christian community ethos posing new challenges to prevailing traditional
theological education in Asia
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